New Testingstan

Goddamned NDS.

I can't find an option to stickify threads. Annoying.

Holy shit, they're still havering about German circumcision legal decision. 7k views, 300 replies. I don't know if it's a dick fixation or an 80% of NDS being atheist so "religion's religious ritual OMFG the religious are teh stupidz hurf wurf smurf LOL" reaction.

What would Mike do?

also the spinoff of that thread was the one where so many of our comrades fell in battle

Zod wrote:I can't find an option to stickify threads. Annoying.

Worked

that's too much effort

Losonti Tokash wrote:also the spinoff of that thread was the one where so many of our comrades fell in battle

Our martyrs are gone, but never forgotten!

If you strike my foreskin down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

Losonti Tokash wrote:also the spinoff of that thread was the one where so many of our comrades fell in battle

I still don't understand why being a moron and running away and ignoring people (Hongi) doesn't rate a Ban, but Baks and Evilsoup do.

Questor wrote:

Losonti Tokash wrote:also the spinoff of that thread was the one where so many of our comrades fell in battle

I still don't understand why being a moron and running away and ignoring people (Hongi) doesn't rate a Ban, but Baks and Evilsoup do.

The "he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day" principle, presumably.

Lol so much for a clean fucking start, eh?

Three pages and we're back to teo

Shit is in our bones duders

At least the reaction to the suggestion was 'whoo yeah let's do it'

As opposed to 'Ford what the hell you talking about shut up'

I'm not bitter

If we want something else to talk about...

So, I've brought up on occassion that I see the fingerprints of Christianity all over internet atheist preferred brands of atheism

I'm rather fascinated by how ideologies interact and syncretize and arise in reaction against and imitation of each other, so the question of how atheist/antitheist/secular movements would look in societies with a different religious context is one I find pretty interesting. Like what would the equivalent of secular humanists or antitheists look like in a culture that say had a religion more like polytheisms where you had a bunch of different gods of ambiguous morality often in conflict with each other, for instance? Would antitheists even exist in a culture not influenced by a missionary religion?

Any takers?

I have one world in my fanfiction motivated by desire to explore this

The cultural background is a sort of Taoism-ish belief system where there's a belief in a non-anthropomorphic cosmic order that humans are supposed to live in harmony with, and suffering occurs when people break harmony with it. Humans are thought to naturally desire the cosmic harmony, so humans are concieved of as naturally good, I'm thinking there wouldn't really be a concept of sin/evil as understand it - there's no grand cosmic battle between good and evil, just the cosmic harmony and people and things occassionally screwing up by deviating from it. There'd probably be an older polytheist religion that's layered over, gods are thought to be capable of harmony and disharmony just like humans. Not sure what their idea of an afterlife is like, but I'm thinking its not really central to their religion or ethical thought which is mostly concerned with this world, just maybe there's sort of "you go here after you die, unless maybe you really screw up then you become a ghost or something." Then the place got taken over by something vaguely equivalent to our communist revolutions. I'm working on modeling how the socio-religious context I just outlined will influence what the philosophy of this revolutionary movement looks like.

Random thought I had about it today, while contemplating whether they'd be likely to be what we'd call communist or mixed economy:

Without Christianity's belief in original sin, what do their theories of capitalism look like?

Maybe instead of emphasizing competition they would have something more like the mandate of heaven concept applied to businesses, thinking of the Invisible Hand as something that rewards good behavior (like producing nice products at low prices and paying workers well, so people want to buy your stuff and work for you) and punishes bad behavior (like producing shitty products and charging high prices and paying your workers badly so nobody wants to work for or buy from you). Instead of talking about how humans are too selfish for socialism to work their capitalistas might talk about how the Invisible Hand is a more effective enforcement mechanism for encouraging good behavior.

Their evolutionary theories might look different too, without the belief in humanity as naturally stained with evil I imagine things like the killer ape hypothesis would get less traction, and theories of human evolution might focus more on the importance of sociability and cooperation in our evolution.

Or think about what effect that cosmic harmony idea might have on their ideas about biology, ecosystem thinking, stuff like the Gaia hypothesis, might come more naturally to them.

Lots of interesting possible knock-on effects of stuff like this.

adr wrote:omg omg omg i got another letter too

this time a hyper personalized note from a very important fellow

The White House, Washington

July 11, 2012


Dear Adam:

Thank you for taking the time to share your views. I have heard from many Americans regarding Iran, and I appreciate your perspective.

I am committed to making my Administration the most open and transparent in history, and part of delivering on that promise is hearing from people like you. I take seriously your opinions and respect your point of view on this important foreign policy matter. Please know that your concerns will be on my mind in the days ahead.

Thank you again for writing. I encourage you to visit http://www.WhiteHouse.gov to learn more about my Administration or to contact me in the future.


Sincerely,

Barack Obama

this level of astonishing detail explains why it took a month to get a reply

You know, I wonder what they'd do if you sent a letter about Star Wars vs Star Trek or something inane like that. Would they just bin it or actually send back, "I have heard from many Americans about whether the Galactic Empire would defeat the Federation..." and then those next two paragraphs which are so vague as to respond to anything. That would be pretty funny if they did, though I strongly suspect you'd just never get any reply. Still, the thought of, "Please know that your concerns will be on my mind in the days ahead," regarding SW vs ST and the President would be rather amusing.

Alternately you literally just send a letter saying you don't really have any opinion to offer, you just want them to send back a form letter so you can have an envelope with "The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20006" return address on it and a digital copy of the President's signature.

Speaking of adr, did they actually print your address on the envelope or did they use one of the ones with the plastic window and just fold it so your address on the letter itself shows?

Oh and I guess the White House has 16 bedrooms and 35 bathrooms which seems like a lot for one family. I wonder how many other actually people live there as opposed to commute.

Also it's worth about $250 million. And I so want to put my name and e-mail into that thing about contacting a local agent to buy 1600 Pennsylvania Ave just to see what they'd say.

EDIT:

Property Details wrote:Security system: Yes

Well gee I am surprised.

Holy shit dude their property taxes are almost $1 billion! Not that it matters of course since they'd literally be paying themselves. But I find it oddly entertaining that the DC has actually gone and assessed the White House.

I like that the value of the home has seemingly gone done from ~$340 million in ~2008 to ~$240 million today


I blame Obama

Christ and now I'm imagining Barrack and Joe performing a charity gig in a soon-to-be-demolished hotel near Pittsburgh and then having to outrun the police as they try to get the money to the District of Columbia Assessor's Office in time.

Quick question :

Is DC a state, or a direct possession of the Federal Republic ? 'cause I was thinking, if it's a state, then they would logically have to pay these $1 billion in property tax, for proper tax redistribution.

RogueIce wrote:Oh and I guess the White House has 16 bedrooms and 35 bathrooms which seems like a lot for one family. I wonder how many other actually people live there as opposed to commute.

Fun fact: After the 2008 election but before he took office Obama asked Bush if his family could move in so they could get settled into DC early enough for their kids to start school there that semester.

But apparently all their rooms were booked for other guests and they couldn't free any up.

Crazedwraith wrote:you seriously expected anything more?

Well... I'm afraid that's apparently quite a difficult question, but my solution is easy. I'm going to talk for a long time about a subject not in anyway related and pretty soon people will forget about it. I'll remind people that I have a great haircut, and under my stewardship Vice City has had, on average, 15% better weather than before, while crime rates only go up if you don't turn the graph upside down. Turn it upside down, and they have halved- HALVED under me, Alex Shrub.

Vote Shrub for president and you'll have a friendly face in the White House. A man you can trust. A local man who likes golf, and laughing, and photo opportunities at your store or place of business. Just send me a letter. I'll send you an automated, photocopied response. We call it "democracy" and that's where the money goes.

i am proud of this thread and the new chapter of NT

thank you phant and aaron

it's been so long i can't recall but didn't you try this a good four or five times already

who?

all y'all

like i think this harkens back to the old days where a drama counter was not out of the question

makes me feel young again

Oxymoron wrote:Quick question :

Is DC a state, or a direct possession of the Federal Republic ? 'cause I was thinking, if it's a state, then they would logically have to pay these $1 billion in property tax, for proper tax redistribution.

It's a federal district, so no state taxes and the like. But it wouldn't matter even if it was in a state, because it's property of the federal government and thus immune to state taxes anyway.